E is for Eye Candy - Accoutrements, et al, 'Colorform' Aliens

Here's a daft thing . . . I posted these about a year and a half ago, while living in the previous flat, and it was cobbled together from Internet images and a couple of catalogue scans, when I had this image in Picasa all along, of my set, which I took in 2021!

So, to be viewed in context, here's the post to which they should have been included;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/04/c-is-for-colorforms-not.html

C is for Colorforms, Not!

Or; C is for Correcting Myths! A lot has been written about these around the Web over the last few years, and a fair bit of what has been written has given a certain type of evilBayer the idea that these are worth, three, five, ten-times what these recent, probably still current somewhere, 99p rummage-tray figures are actually worth!

Generic Space Attack set of all twelve, date unknown, but these have been around for a while, you get six spacemen/aliens/robot types and six space vessels, which happen to be six Colorforms knock-off's, and Thunderbird 1-5 clones with a space shuttle, it's the Colorforms connection which leads to the exciting pricing, but they are probably, actually knock-off's of the 1980's play-set knock-off's from Toyco's set, Alien Attack, where they were polyethylene mouldings, approximately 60mm against these 54mm PVC wobblers.

 

Brian Heiler's Video on the Canadian set

We then find them in the Archie McFee (Accoutrements) catalogue, circa 1996, I think, and they may have had a fancy box, or been sent-out in a plain carton or header-carded bag? Now called Alien & Spaceship Invasion, you are still getting all twelve, despite the caveats in the description, I suspect you got one of each moulding.

 

But in 1998, the six spaceships are issued in a boardgame, sans figures, Aristoplay's futuristic Mars 2020 (how far away 2020 must have seemed to them in 1998!) which must - if it was a single tool - have left a lot of extra figures kicking around in some Chinese warehouse, looking for a buyer . . . 

 

 

. . . which was found, with Ruestes in Argentina,  and their Star Attack line, which consisted of lager boxed sets, which had the figures and a larger toy, not the spaceships, although the spaceships were included in smaller sets and carded blisters, some with other toys, some with a five 'Colorforms'/'Thunderbirds' assortment.

 

Spanish language video of the Ruestes sets

So, we've been attacked, invaded and explored by Aliens, Stars, Space, Spaceships and Mars, and I suspect, somewhere, in some wholesaler's or toy-chain's territory we are still being attacked by these cheapo' knock-off's, I know there's a French seller, who seems to be selling a lot of them, lose, which he appears to have got as a job-lot and broken-down . . . cake decorations? Bazaar figures? Wait 'till you see them cheap in a 99p rummage-tray, is my advice!

P is for Pushy Polymer Pack of Paparazzi Press!

Back to Archie McPhee/Accoutrements for another box-tick of their slightly oversized, relatively recent, novelty figure sets, and this is basically the same set, but marketed twice as a set of paparazzi and as a set of reporters/fans for irritating influencers!

The smaller set of 'You're the Star' figures, you get five peeps who are supposedly hanging-around near the red carpet you've placed your narcissistic self on, and they seek posey-shots and word of wisdom to quote in the Fanzines!

 

The inner liner will almost certainly make a reappearance here at Small Scale World, if only when I do the planned 'battle of the bands' with the Mattel CUTIES, Gemodels 'Beatles' and other musical types of the pop-genre!

 

I believe this larger set was actually offered first, but it came-in second, got shot and collaged second and can go second on the page. We have another four poses in this Paparazzi Play Set, and while the five are duplicates, or duplicated in the You're the Star set, some colours are quite different.

The little Japanese (?) reporter is not that different, but the kneeling guy with the 'safari' equipment vest is quite different, as is the red-headed girl, who remains a redhead, but is otherwise a different colourway entirely. That's it, that's them - box ticked.

H is for Horrified B-Movie Victimes

Let's just unpack that, shall we? They are horrified, fair enough, something bad's happening, they are B-Movie, because A-Movie actors don't ham-it-up this bad? And they are victims, apparently none of them will get off scot-free, even if they survive unscathed, the trauma will be with them forever!

Accoutrements / Archie McPhee's novelty terrified citizenry, they are fun, and nicely done, but they are too big for most toy or model figures to play with, so it is a case of posing them with the cat, or a teddy-bear and then sending them to the back of the kitchen drawer, or recycling!

The couple, he hasn't a clue, but he'll drag her with him!

And the hysterical one!

The ladies; light-pink looks like she has a plan and is determined to carry it out, or try it, dark pink has accepted here fate, which buys everyone else some time, while Big-Ted stops to eat her! Green has frozen and will be next! Avoid-snog-marry I think!

The guys aren't doing much better, but red, orange, what colour is that? Shirt-man has found a gun, he's probably a concealed-carry geography teacher (explains the shirt), 'cos everybody knows the more guns you can get into a classroom, legally, the safer everyone is! Indeed, the more guns the better, the staggering death-tolls in Europe, and particularly Britain, is purely down to the lack of guns!

 

I guess they are really designed for big gorilla or Godzilla type toys, or those soft-play giant dinosaurs, something like that? Anyway: box ticked!

F is for Flesh-eating . . . Zombies . . .

. . . are there any other kind? Actually it should be T is for Two - Zombies, as the post rather grew somewhat!

The Glow-in-the-Dark Flesh Eating Zombies Playset from Archie McPhee's mate Accoutrements!

I've been after these for a while and when this one with a sun-fogged case/blister came-up cheap, it seemed like a good excuse to buy one I could open and scan etcetera, so that's what I did, would have been rude not to!

Nine figures at the larger end of the range (75-80mm'ish) and as well sculpted as any other Accoutrements' sets, with all the tropes we've seen since I started looking harder for these zombie figures a few years ago - devil-dog, fat bloke, rising grave-contents (why would they come to life if they haven't been bitten - the rising dead is another movie!), dressing-gown lady, holding his own limb bloke . . . boxes ticked!

All nine, they are made out of a phosphorescent polymer, the amount of painting dictates how much glows and both fat-bloke and dressing-gown lady score low, their eyes are painted-in bright-green fluorescent paint, so appear manic in bright light, or black in the dark which gives them a sinister look, either way!

Compared with the similar sized (some closer to 70mm), but not glowing Safari Tube figures, and again' rising bodies, fat bloke and crawling pose are all mirrored, along with a bunch of undead Karan's! The Safari figures also have the 'emergency green' fluorescent eyes.

This is where I pulled back one of the boo-boo's as I had not fully photographed the Safari, beyond the Accoutrements comparisons, but I managed to find them this week and brought them back, to take a few more shots and make the full T is for Two...!

I thought the grave/s in the previous images looked like they were in two pieces, so shot them again to prove the single moulding. Along with a group shot of the low-hanging fruit!

The eight upright poses are fifty-fifty male and female, with fat-bloke being so fat he doesn't need a base . . . some subtle social profiling there Archie'ments? Also while the two grave-risers are pink, the other ten poses are equally split between bruised purplish-pink and a dead-for-a-while greeny-grey.

The sales image from Amazon with the square 'Toob' (actually a prism . . . or a block!)* as I seem to have forgotten to scan the insert cards, although I know I've got them somewhere and will do another day - probably for the A-Z entry . . . when I get to it!

And did I say the Accoutrements glow in the dark!

 

* It's a rod isn't it, a rod with square-section! Comes to something when a graphic designer can't remember basic geometrical terminology!

T is for ♫♪♫♫ Tank Heavurn for Leettle Girrrls! ♫♪♪♪

Bit of an odyssey on this one, so we'll start with the 2000/2001 Archie McPhee catalogue, sent free when I purchased the YT re-issue Giant knights and Mongols from them . . . twenty years ago (where does it go?); a small, black and white image . . .

. . . but it peaked my interest, even though at the time I was 'small scale' only, clearly harking back to the rubber jigglers of past gum-ball vending machine capsule prizes, while also being scantily-clad 'babes' of some allure, what's not to like!

Fast-forward about twelve years and Brian Carrick put four in a bag of cheepies for me at a PW show - one of the first at the new venue - and I was holding them from the blog thinking there were eight in the set so four still to find, but the other day I saw the same four on evilBay and though "Oh. maybe it was only ever the four?", so shot them to Blog - here above; Draconia and Reptilia!

Here we have Sarapede and Tarantuella, they are all 'Stab & Hope' painted, which only really adds to their retro-charm, and are manufactured in a very soft silicon-rubber, so could be called 'strechies' as well as jigglers!

However I'd then found the catalogue and realised there were six pose and after scanning the catalogue, quickly found one cheap BIN on feeBay and fired-off some of my shekels to receive this a week or so ago! I'm not opening it, as I'll find the two missing ones loose at some point.

Note that it's actually branded to Accoutrements, Archie McPhee is the headquarters with a large store, Accoutrements is the retail branding, rather like our Tobar/Hawkin's Bazaar, but I don't think Accoutrements have a chain of stores like Hawkin's did - until recently!

But I did shoot them in-situ, to finish the article and this is Vampira, the vampish bat-lady, harbinger of Covid!

And possibly my favourite; The Scorpion Queen.

In looking into these, I realised I should have known there were six, not just because the catalogue was in the archive, but because Littleweirdos and Shean's fantasy Soldiers posted them ages ago and I've always followed both blogs, but just as you can't physically own everything, so too your brain doesn't retain everything! So, a shout out to them and I also found the designer of the follow-on product's artwork.

Little Weirdos Blog
Shaun's Fantasy Toy Soldiers Blog
Kurt Hanks, Designer

In a hobby-world where nearly all the product represents male figures, it has to be said that Archie/Accoutrements have flown the flag for women since their inception, with Rosie the Riveter, flying nuns, flick-nuns, grow your own hookers, nuns, tarts and girlfriends (well, maybe not always the high-point of feminism!) found in the catalogue over the years!

They also produced (or commissioned) the above; 70mm red-carpet 'fans', 70mm glow-in-the-dark zombie women and one of the few true action figures in my collection; the Crazy Cat Lady . . . for the six cats of course! And there's a set of B-movie panicking victims, with several females, somewhere, who go well with the zombies!

Action Figure is for Points of Articulation

Following-on from the earlier post's large sandy-coloured gentleman; this is not the normal output of the Blog, and is presented here as an easy read, to clear Picasa of images going back to 2016, for general information and because it's Rack Toy Month, and these are classic modern rack toys!

I don't collect these, I don't think many of you do, but they come in . . . there are shelfies here from Brian Berke and myself, there are donated samples from Peter Evans, stuff I've picked-up and things which have been included in mixed Charity Shop lots . . . they just come in!

Once they have been annotated and photographed they tend to go on to the Blue Cross charity shop here in town, where hopefully the mint/near-mint stuff provides a nice surprise for a kid who's parent may only be able to afford toys from charity shops?

An overview . . . chronologically according to the dates on the .jpg's!

These are two on the left from Brian, which he sent to the Blog back in 2016 (Combat Soldiers) and 2017 (Desert Force), the latter branded to both Hunson (obverse) and JPW International (reverse), the former a generic. The one on the right is from Peter, much-later (2019) and was just collaged into the trio, it too; lacks a brand mark.

Two of the 'laws' of rack-toy army-men are established immediately; loads of SF (Special [or Security] Force/s) panoply festooning the figures and over-sized accessories - play value comes before realism with these! Although - to be fair - the left hand figure has received a semi-realistic wash paint-job.

Also from Brian, also 2017 came these chaps, similar to the figures in the middle set of the previous trio of sets, these are nevertheless new sculpts and shrinking their berets on the correct side!

A further 'law' makes itself obvious; random accessories such as undersized flags, or oversized rockets from WWII German halftracks! I'm not sure if Super is a phantom brand or an over-optimistic corporate QA statement from the otherwise anonymous manufacturer!

This gets us to 2018, with the two on the right from Peter (we may have seen another in a similar post last year or the year before?), both 'minters' I hope they went on to bring joy to a small person, the larger one branded to Maxxi (a Middlesex-based importer) the other generic.

Some further close ups of the previous pair from peter; the franchise-tied (Call of Duty) but outherwise generic one is actually a very well made and finished figure, possibly Blue Box (BBI) clearance?

While Maxxi have been connected to those crude 54mm'ish Wild West sets also issued by about five other 'brands' in the last three or four years, their figure comes with candy (and may have been seen already, in a candy-container post?). I have a lot of novelty stuff kicking about in Picasa and tend to grab it without much planning during RTM!

Speaking of the Maxxi 54mm solids they are responsible for this chap too (right-hand image); Apache Big Chief, also from Peter, while the Accoutrements (Archie McPhee) Oscar Wild came from Brian, the two prooving that non-Army Man, rack toy, action figures are out there!

Also JPW; Brian sent these shelfies over 2018 and 2019, and there's no way they are in any way connected to a certain stony movie franchise, on no, not at all, and the white guy doesn't even look like Mr Stallone! These are actually quite cool toys, if I was younger . . . and etcetera! They each come with a piece of boxing-gym equipment, so you can build-up a little training-regime, while Sly . . . I mean the guy in the stripped shorts worries about failing the big test!

Taken last October is this overview of some of the above with others that had come in from various sources as lose figures including some pricier branded civilians from younger kids 'big name' toy ranges, I haven't given any sizes, as I haven't noted any as they went through, and those who know about these things will . . . err . . . know!

A couple more loose ones and a set we have seen before I think, from H&H Distribution. I can see the appeal of them, but action figures need more space than I have ever had, and - on the branded side - more funds than I can or am willing to provide!

T is for Two - Novelty Rack Toys

This is just clearing junk from Picasa, but . . . they are both figural, fun, quality junk!

From Accoutrements, possibly via Archie McPhee (I made-up an order from them back in the 1990's when they (and BuM) were carrying the Giant re-issues) comes this set of Hula dancers on swizzle-sticks.

One day I'll get them out and cut a couple off to base them as stand-alone figures, but for now they stay-put. About 25mm and a polypropylene type polymer.

These expandable toys fall into two categories; fun stocking fillers for kids at Christmas and Stag/Hen stuff, this is really from the latter, and after an explosion of them in the early-1990's they faded a bit, but the novelty and gift section of Waterstone's is still good for a selection of Nun's, Escorts and Body-builders!

Crap photograph not helped by the expanding foam figurine being in an orange-red, the worst of all colours to shoot! 40mm dry . . . 100+ wet . . . 'ish! Now defunct Marshall's of the West Country were the importer on this one.

M is for Monster Women and their Pesky Invasion!

Another quickie, box ticking to add info to the tag list, this one covers Accoutrements and Archie McPhee, and concerns their product line 'Invasion of the Monster Women!'. Made in a soft silicon-rubber they tend to deformation which probably won't respond to the hot-water treatment?

Issued in the late 1990's, I'm sure I remember mates having these (or something VERY similar) back in the late 1960's/70's) but I've never seen 'old' ones on evilBay, so it may be a false-memory; cross-pollinating with the many other, similar rubber-jigglers/rubber uglies et al, along with illustrations of similar monsters in books and comics?

From the left we have Spider Lady, Snake Lady, Sphinxy-phoenix Lady and Centiplady (Taratuella, Reptilica, Draconia and Sarapede respectively) and due to their truncated-human-bits and nominally-female nature they can cover a scale-range of 50-70mm.

I'm pretty sure I have Brian Carrick to thank for these, they came-in a couple of years ago and there may be the other two (Bat Lady [Vampira] and Scorpion Lady [The Scorpion Queen]) in storage, but thank you Brian C.

A is for Accoutrements

This has been imported from 'Boring Blog' (which I will close down) and may have images or other text added in the future.

Accoutrements - Available through Archie McPhee, Stads Stuff and other outlets in the mid-to-late 1990's
Re-issues of the Giant piracies
Bulk Bagged sets
- Knights
Header-carded Bags
(YF) Nọ 810 - Mongolians And Castle
(YF) Nọ 811 - Romans And Castles

A is for Accoutrements

The final (to date?) installment of the 'Giant' fort story begins in the early-to-mid 1990's when Archie McPhee, a US toy and novelty retailer and early 'web' eRetailer started offering the original Giant mouldings - in new colours, under their 'Accoutrements' label. They were made more widely available by dint of Paul Stadinger who secured a goodly number and distributed them to the Toy Soldier collecting community via his Stads List.

The two sets as issued, there was a third item - a large bag of Knight figures only, appeared first in approximately 1990. The Mongol fort was then issued in around 1993 with the Knight's fort following sometime '95/96.

However they were only copies of a late 1970's to mid-80's issue originally marked MADE IN HONG KONG (rear card/R.hand card above), the Hong Kong (but not the YF branding) was then obliterated - presumably in preparation for the return to China in '97) and finally overprinted with the Accoutrements disc on the reverse and the MADE IN CHINA block on the obverse.

The Archie McPhee/Accoutrements cards were a more modern all-colour printing, the older HK issues being a three-colour process, but the original artwork was used, rather than a copy as was the case with the Giant set we looked at the other day. Figures in the HK and early figure bag had the 'Giant' scratched-out on the figure's bases, later sets had 'China' over-engraved.


The latest outing for the mould was with BuM in 1999, when they issued the Mongol fort with both the Mongol infantry, and with their own ex-Montaplex copies of the Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham figures.

The real question is - If the moulds to both forts and the Knight & Mongol figures are still usable, where are the rest of the Giant moulds, and might they also one day reappear? Also the fact that they can keep popping up and filling western companies order-books suggests that the poor quality of HK mouldings in general, is down to the poor quality of the masters, not - as some have claimed over the years (myself included) - cheap moulds, and in fact the moulds can under the right circumstances last just as long, and produce as much product as any of Airfix's moulds?

Of note - Accoutrements are currently carrying the set of 5 metal knights by Westair of the UK, sometimes credited to Kinder Germany! What goes around comes around!!